- This article is about gargoyles, the statues. For the animated series, see Gargoyles (animated series).
A gargoyle on the Basilica of the Sacré Cœur , Paris showing the water channel
View of Paris from the Galerie des Chimères
In architecture, gargoyles, or gurgoyles (from the French gargouille, originally the throat or gullet, cf. Latin gurgulio, gula, and similar words derived from root gar, to swallow, the word representing the gurgling sound of water; Ital. doccione; Ger. Ausguss), are the carved terminations to a spout which convey water away from the gutters.
Gargoyles are mostly grotesque figures. A local legend the sprang up around the name of St Romanus ("Romain") (631-641 A.D.) the former chancellor of the Merovingian king Clotaire II who was made bishop of Rouen relates how he delivered the country round of Rouen from a monster called Gargouille, having had him captured by a liberated prisoner. In commemoration of St. Romain the Archbishops of Rouen were granted the right to set a prisoner free on the day that the reliquary of the saint was carried in procession: see details at Rouen.
The term gargoyle is applied more especially to medieval work, but throughout all ages some means of throwing the water off the roofs, when not conveyed in gutters, has been adopted, and in Egypt there are gargoyles to eject the water used in the washing of the sacred vessels which would seem to have been done on the flat roofs of the temples. In Greek temples, the water from the roof passed through the mouths of lions whose heads were carved or modelled in the marble or terra cotta cymatium of the cornice. At Pompeii large numbers of terra cotta gargoyles have been found that were modelled in the shape of various animals.
Statues representing gargoyle-like creatures are popular sales items, particularly in goth and New Age retail stores. Gargoyles as a distinct race have featured in several works of fantasy fiction, such as Terry Pratchett's Discworld series and the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. They were also prominently featured in a Disney animated series, Gargoyles, and played a role in that company's adaptation of Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Actress Adrienne Barbeau played a violent gargoyle in the TV series Monsters.
Gargoyles, or more properly chimerae, were used as decoration on 19th and early 20th century buildings in cities such as New York (where the Chrysler Building's aluminum gargoyles are celebrated), Chicago, and so forth.
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